Mike Huckabee Blasts Elitism In Laura Ingraham Interview (AUDIO)

Former Arkansas governor and potential 2012 GOP contender Mike Huckabee spoke out bitterly Wednesday against what he perceives as elitism in the process of selecting a party's presidential nominee.

"I've never been one that was on their radar screen because I grew up in a small Southern town, a very tiny little town. I didn't go to the right schools, I went to small Christian university, but I would take my education and put it up against anybody's. Every time I've had an opponent from Harvard, I feel like I've bested him in a debate," Huckabee told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.

"This whole idea that somehow I'm not capable," he continued, "because I grew up duck hunting and deer hunting as opposed to maybe riding on the side of the saddle -- I'm sorry, but I feel like I represent a real part of America."

Huckabee then said that he wasn't claiming any sort of superiority, but that he didn't want to be discounted because of his differing circumstances.

"Don't somehow disqualify because I haven't been to Harvard or I didn't somehow grow up in the toniest schools on the East Coast and end up traveling to Europe every summer," Huckabee continued.

It's a similar, albeit much less direct, claim to one made recently by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who responded to former First Lady Barbara Bush's coolness on her presidential ambitions by calling the Bushes -- also during an appearance on the Laura Ingraham radio show -- "blue bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition to pick and choose the winners."

Both Huckabee and Palin have been consistent in their approach of explaining their critics as elitists who allegedly don't appreciate or respect their more blue-collar avenue to political power. Huckabee defended Palin against a slight by Karl Rove in October, saying that infighting in the GOP was a product of the party's "elitism" and "country club attitudes."

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Comments

[Appleton]

07:45 PM on 12/03/2010

Several observations regarding Mr. Huckabee's fit of pique:

1. "I feel like I bested..." is incorrect. He should have said, "I feel that I bested... ."

2. Utilizing fallacious arguments to defend one's intellectual abilities is merely ironic rather than persuasive. No one has questioned Mr. Huckabee's abilities because he went to a Christian college, enjoys hunting or comes from a small southern town. Straw man arguments, non sequiturs and appeals to pity and sectionalism tend rather to support the perceptions one is attempting to refute.

3. One of the smartest people I ever met was one of my law professors, Leon Green. Dean Green graduated from Ouachita Baptist College in Arkansas in the early 1900s, when that university was still a backwater institution. He went on to become dean of the law school at Northwestern and one of the foremost authorities on tort law of the twentieth century. No one questioned the quality of his scholarship based upon his origins.

4. Resort to charges of intellectual elitism is a failure of intellect. Most of us want smart people representing us. We do not desire leaders who think the Constitution was divinely inspired, who preach that scientific principles in conflict with biblical literalism must be false and who insist that it is a function of government to legislate sectarian religious doctrines.

Shakespeare got it right in "Julius Caesar." "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

[siamao]

04:45 PM on 12/08/2010

Outstanding comment, so well written. 

It's my honor to fan and fave you.

[magrace]

04:51 PM on 12/08/2010

Thanks for faving, for me to catch. I could not agree more.

[nowme]

07:41 PM on 12/03/2010

"because I grew up duck hunting and deer hunting as opposed to maybe riding on the side of the saddle" riding on the side of a saddle? like a woman?

[Angie Tyne 1]

12:47 PM on 12/03/2010

Mr. Huckabee, a major reason why neither you nor Mrs. Palin have been supported for higher office is that the majority of the people in this country do not want a theocracy. You have both stated your strong support for Christians tenets as law.

[mc chileanseabass]

12:30 PM on 12/03/2010

Huckelberry sounds like Ted Haggard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmMv0ceWTVQ

[mc chileanseabass]

12:26 PM on 12/03/2010

Gomer: ShaZAM!

Sgt Carter: PYLE!!!!

[Disciple1]

11:32 AM on 12/03/2010

I agree that there are "incompetents" that graduate from Ivy League schools (cough: Bush) just as there are inept candidates from say, Liberty University. But that's not the MAJOR reason why neither Huckabee nor Palin should have the opportunity to sit in the Oval Office. I have my list--you are free to make your own.

[FellowTraveler]

11:16 AM on 12/03/2010

This guy incites murder on his television show. Just saying.

[budanatr]

11:12 AM on 12/03/2010

Mike Huckabee is a legend in his own mind.

[floridafun]

11:02 AM on 12/03/2010

one more attempt with this post..mikie isnt over the fact that mccain became the repub candidate of 2012 sounds like. i dont think he did so well in debates. his religion ruled all his answers during debates. evolution? creationis­m? abortion? gay rights? everything he was asked he pointed to his bible. and it was embarrassi­ng the way he dragged chuckie norris around as his new bff.
it isnt elitism that made you lose. it was who you are and how you are obviously trying tooo hard to be liked. eeew!

[SeenItBefore]

10:55 AM on 12/03/2010

Gosh, Huck, you almost had me, but then I remembered a comment you made during your last attempt to be President.

I paraphrase: That you were against abortions and a woman's right to choose. Going to say that if all the children were carried to term, they could grow up and pick the crops in America.

Implying an anti - abortion stance could also stop illegals from sneaking across the borders.

With a knapsack of ideas like those, well, he[[, "Come on down!"

[floridafun]

11:01 AM on 12/03/2010

yup. he was always subtle and always made sure we all knew gawd was on his side ;-)

[HC4BO]

10:53 AM on 12/03/2010

Maybe that's because there were no mathematical equations that required solving ...

[floridafun]

10:53 AM on 12/03/2010

mikie isnt over the fact that mccain became the repub candidate of 2012 sounds like. i dont think he did so well in debates. his religion ruled all his answers during debates. evolution? creationism? abortion? gay rights? everything he was asked he pointed to his bible. and it was embarrassing the way he dragged chuckie norris around as his new bff.
it isnt elitism that made you lose. it was who you are and how you are obviously trying tooo hard to be liked. eeew!

[zest]

10:16 AM on 12/03/2010

Is he bitter?

[floridafun]

10:59 AM on 12/03/2010

why yes as a matter of fact he is LOL!

[Billar]

10:01 AM on 12/03/2010

Mike forgot to tell all of you that he debated the employees of Harvards Drug Store, Little Rock.
He debated everyone from the soda clerk to the cashier, trying to get a discount. He failed.

[IfIonlyknew]

09:52 AM on 12/03/2010

Well isn't he just full of himself.